Mexico City Redux o

This is our second time in Mexico City and it’s been very enjoyable so far. The trip from the airport was smooth. The airport was not overly busy for a city of 20 million plus.  Most travelers were taking connecting flights to other parts of the country or buses for cities nearby.  We haven’t seen too many tourists even in the zocalo which is one of the busiest places in the center of the city.
We were lucky to find this hotel, Hotel Marlowe, the first time around and it’s proven as ideal the second time.  There are a lot of food options nearby, it’s an area teeming with people, it feels very safe but of course one can never be too careful.
There are still a lot of security guards and police as well as army patrolling the streets.  The site of army trucks loaded with soldiers carrying heavy artillerie is sort of freaky at first but we remember similar sights especially in Guatemala.
Today we had a leisurely breakfast with all the fixings, coffee was even pretty good, not Nescafé, and it cost about $8.00 for the two of us.  We then headed for the tallest building in Latin America, one of the 50 tallest in the world and had a great visit admiring the huge city from the 43rd. Floor.  The city is absolutely phenomenal in size.  Not a great location, in a deep valley, ringed by mountains, two of them volcanoes.
Of course initially the city was surrounded by water which made it an ideal defensive location. The Spaniards changed all that when they won the war and defeated the Aztecs. They proceeded to drain the water and pave it over.  The only evidence of Aztecs having been in Mexico City is the Templo Major which was rediscovered in the mid seventies by an electrical company doing some excavating. The Catholic Church did everything in its power to erase all traces of the infidels in the city and they more or less succeeded except for these lingering ruins of the original city.
This evening we walked quite a few blocks in search of Garibaldi Plaza. We ended up in an iffy area of town, didn’t find the plaza and decided to turn back.
We found a new pasteleria store. There is a bewildering choice of all types of pastries, the biggest pastry stores we have seen and the pastries, as per usual, looked good. We had very good coffee and an  apple pie which turned out to be excellent.  I think pastries have improved tremendously since we last visited Mexico. They’re obviously using better flour, there are more whole wheat choices, healthier choices which is great to see.
Like elsewhere Mexicans appear to be extremely fond of their cellphones. They are on them constantly. Prices appear to be quite low thus affordable. One thing I noticed the Chinese company Huwei is very big here. Lots of ads. For their phones. Apparently Mexicans are not afraid of a little espionage by the Chinese or that their technology will eventually subsume theirs.
Tomorrow we have a big day planned. Going to visit the Frida Kalho Blue House and the Diego Rivera museum plus a whole lot of other interesting things to do and see.  The weather has been great. It’s even too hot but ok won’t complain about that one.